First release of 2018: Nonsun • Black Snow Desert

January 11, 2018 / By Wout Lievens

We're excited to announce our first release of 2018. Nonsun from Ukraine will release their debut album Black Snow Desert with us on January 25th. Their dark immersive experimental drone doom metal is the perfect soundtrack for these dark and gloomy winter days.

It's not an ordinary album. It's a journey. A long and hard trip. With a heavy heart and longing spirit. But those patient and open-minded will eventually be rewarded. It's the music from behind the wall of sleep. And it doesn't matter on which side you are while listening to it.

We've been working on this one for a rather long time. Black Snow Desert by Nonsun was self released two years ago. Digital only. A year later the band got in touch with us to see if we were interested to have their debut album released on vinyl. We were immediately convinced by this immersive experimental ambient doom noise drone metal album and got to work. We asked Deaftone Studios to give it a second listen and rework some details to have everything just right for a vinyl release. Mastering was done by Tobias Stieler (Kokomo).

Of course a vinyl release needs to come with suitable artwork. We thought this kind of album was a job for Samantha Muljat (also designed Reflectionless by Set and Setting). Very quickly she came with the idea to shoot some pictures in the area near LA that was affected with some serious wild fires in summer 2017 which left the area covered in black and white ashes making it feel exactly like a black snow desert. The result is stunning!

The remastered album is available for streaming from today! Vinyl pre-orders will be launched next week and the actual release is scheduled for January 25th.

A mammoth and extraordinarily well crafted effort from Nonsun, “Black Snow Desert” is certainly a must for any avid drone/doom fan. — The Sludgelord

Listening to Black Snow Desert is like taking a pilgrimage through a constantly changing landscape...This isn’t music that you can just turn on as background music and then go about your business. There’s too much to miss, and the payoff from fully immersing yourself in the sound is too great. — Metal Bandcamp

Black Snow Desert is best described as a slowly shifting sandstorm, winds at lethargic speeds raising gargantuan clouds of dust before slowly disseminating them back across the plains. — Crossfader

This stark, pitch-black music drapes crawling drones atop distorted chords as huge as hills, while icy arpeggiated guitars meander in and out of phase with tolling bass and tumbling drums. Fried desert-­rock riffs and clip-­clopping percussion give the darkness a vaguely rustic flavor, but the album's eerie ambient passages and eruptions of distant thunder mostly bring to mind vast un­­inhabited spaces—the kind that make you think about how far away the wind comes from. — Chicago Reader